Jenna Dooley

WNIJ All Things Considered Host

Jenna Dooley has spent her professional career in public radio. She is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois - Springfield. She returned to Northern Public Radio in DeKalb after several years hosting Morning Edition at WUIS-FM in Springfield. For 2012, she was named "Newsfinder of the Year" by the Illinois Associated Press. She is also recipient of the 2014 Donald R. Grubb NIU Journalism Alumni Award. She is not afraid to brag at parties that she has met Carl Kasell, Ira Glass, and Garrison Keillor (and has pictures to prove it!) She is the former Recording Secretary for the Illinois News Broadcasters Association.

Ways To Connect

Election officials want to remind voters to report any issues they run into at the polls. 173 teams of assistant attorneys general and investigators from the Illinois Attorney General’s office will be working throughout the state today to watch the general election to ensure that Illinoisans’ voting rights are protected and that polling places are accessible.

For several days in October, members of the Illinois National Guard’s Bilateral Embedded Staff (BEST) Team convened in Marseilles for pre-deployment training. In the coming months, the soldiers will be sent to Afghanistan.

The Rockford Public School Board has named Ehren Jarrett as its new Superintendent. The board will begin contract negotiations with the possibility of Jarrett assuming his new role July 1, 2013. Interim Superintendent Robert Willis is expected to stay on until then.

Northern Illinois has a good chance to avoid the threats of damaging winds and massive rains from Superstorm Sandy. That's the conclusion of NIU meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste, who's been tracking the storm on the east coast.

More people in DeKalb County are taking advantage of early voting. According to DeKalb County Clerk John Acardo, thousands of people have already voted before the November 6th election. That's about a thousand more early votes than four years ago.

Members of the District 304 Board of Education met with members of the Geneva Education Association and a federal mediator last week. Despite some progress, the Geneva Education Association delivered a Notice of Intent to Strike to Board negotiators. Final offers have been posted on the Illinois Educational Labor Relations website. The earliest date that a strike can occur is Friday, November 9, 2012.

Democrat Leslie Coolidge is facing incumbent Republican Peter Roskam. Coolidge, a Harvard educated CPA, says she has the fiscal wherewithal to help make the economy a priority in Washington. Roskam campaigns in a Democrat-drawn district which largely keeps a Republican stronghold of voters. The district includes portions of McHenry and Kane counties.

The Sycamore Pumpkin Festival kicks off this week. It will be a bittersweet start to the festival's 51st year. This is the first year since the death of the Festival's founder, Wally Thurow, affectionately known as "Mr. Pumpkin." Sycamore author Tom Oestreicher has written a biography of Thurow and the festival. The book is called Mr. Pumpkin & The Sycamore Pumpkin Festival: A 50 Year History.

In November, Illinois voters will be asked if it should be more difficult to increase pension benefits for public employees. If approved, the proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution would raise the number of votes needed to make increases to public employee pensions from a simple majority to a three-fifths vote. It applies to the General Assembly, city councils, school boards, and other public governing bodies.

Representative Bob Pritchard says the proposed amendment is the result of the current underfunding of public pensions: